Case Study: Fetch Robotics
Fetch Robotics and Ricoh Partner to Make Service and Support as Intelligent and Self-Sufficient as Autonomous Technology
About the customer
Fetch Robotics pioneered the world’s first cloud robotics platform for delivering on-demand automation in any warehouse or manufacturing environment. Located in San Jose, California, the company has the only autonomous mobile robot (AMR) solution that can be deployed in a matter of a few days — instead of weeks or months — while also enabling customers to continue to iterate on workflows until perfect.
Fetch robots handle a multitude of material handling applications as well as automated data collection with a common, unified, cloud-based platform. With its AMRs and cloud-based software, customers can find, track and move anything from pieces to pallets in warehouses, factories and distribution centers.
Fetch Robotics has 140-plus employees and serves more than 100 customers consisting of the top 25 U.S. third party logistics (3PL) providers, aerospace and automotive manufacturers, retailers, and electronics and industrial distributors.
One of the key enablers for Fetch Robotics to provide world-class service and support to our customers is Ricoh.
Diptish Datta
VP, Support and Services
Fetch Robotics
Challenge
Elevate 24/7 remote support capabilities
Costly, time-consuming service at customer locations
Local technicians unfamiliar with the robotics platform
Need for efficient, responsive remote diagnostics and on-site service and support
As a small company, Fetch Robotics had to prioritize resources on product development to build the most advanced autonomous robotics technology. At the same time, customer satisfaction was a top priority and Fetch was committed to providing 24/7 remote diagnostics and support through its FetchCore cloud software as well as on-site service to customers when required.
Remote support was already in place, but no strict service levels were in place. When on-site service was necessary, the company typically had to take an engineering team member away from their core development tasks to travel to a customer location to troubleshoot and return the robot to service.
As an alternative, Fetch Robotics could have sought to hire a local service technician near the customer site for issues that couldn’t be resolved remotely and needed to be escalated. However, there was no guarantee they could find a local technician familiar with the Fetch Robotics platform.
With a thriving business and expansion into new markets, Fetch Robotics needed a proven technology service provider to help them deliver exceptional customer service.
Solution
“Over the last nine months, the number of cases that had to be escalated back to Fetch Robotics has dropped by half.”
Diptish Datta
VP, Support and Services
Fetch Robotics
Leveraged established RICOH Service Advantage offering
Implemented FetchCare for 24/7 remote support
Conducted training for call center and field service staff
Provided a successful proof of concept
Set up standardized support processes and procedures
Fetch Robotics was growing and decided it was the right time to build a service infrastructure and find a capable partner to run it. The partner also needed to be willing to work within the parameters of Fetch Robotics’ existing CRM system. Fetch Robotics issued an RFP and found most service providers required use of their own CRM systems — everyone but Ricoh, that is. Plus, Ricoh had an established offering called RICOH Service Advantage that already provided the organizational structure, expertise, leadership and process for handling service calls for other customers from our Tucker, Georgia service desk. In addition, we had the ability to scale up as call volumes increase to maintain Fetch Robotics’ service level agreements (SLAs) with customers.
We began by coordinating with Fetch Robotics to create FetchCare, an offering to provide round-the-clock support to Fetch Robotics’ worldwide customers. FetchCare proactively, promptly and remotely provides service on the robots in the field and leverages the FetchCore cloud robotics software to remotely resolve software issues.
We first implemented the program in the U.S. to provide a proof of concept. After extensive training on the robotics technology, we provided Level 1 remote services for incident and event monitoring through the company’s cloud platform. We also implemented Level 2 service for remote support and issue resolution — and escalation of a local Ricoh field service technician for on-site break/fix services, if needed. Ricoh and Fetch Robotics partnered to provide extensive in-person training on the robotics technology for the Ricoh service desk staff as well as online training for Ricoh’s established field service network. With a successful proof of concept in the U.S. and standardized support processes and procedures in place, Fetch Robotics is now entrusting us with implementing FetchCare in six European countries — with Asia potentially on the horizon.
Results
Level 1 incidents average under 10 minutes
Level 2 incidents average less than an hour
Escalation to Fetch Robotics down from 20% to 10%
24/7 service and support without infrastructure investment
With Ricoh now managing service and support for Fetch Robotics, the average remote response time for a Level 1 incident is now under 10 minutes — and Level 2 remote support and issue resolution averages less than an hour. In many cases, Ricoh’s service desk handles issues remotely and proactively even before the customer becomes aware or experiences any downtime.
With Ricoh providing skilled service desk and field support, the issues that have required escalation to Fetch Robotics have dropped from 20 percent to 10 percent over the course of nine months. In addition, Ricoh is meeting — and often exceeding — the customer SLAs for four-hour issue resolution.
Fetch Robotics now receives 24-hour service and support from Ricoh’s infrastructure of technical resources to keep their customers’ AMRs running smoothly. The company also avoided the cost of building their service infrastructure in-house or relying on a patchwork of non-dedicated local providers. As Fetch Robotics looks to the future and expands their portfolio by developing larger robots, they know they can rely on their partnership with Ricoh to seamlessly deliver the service and support that their growing customer-base — many in mission-critical environments — will expect.